1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to technology to prevent clogging of nozzles in fluid ejecting apparatuses that eject fluid.
2. Related Art
In ink-jet recording apparatuses, which discharge ink to, for example, recording sheets through nozzles, clogging of nozzles and ink-discharge failure resulting therefrom may occur due to thicker ink in the vicinity of the nozzles or bubbles entering the nozzles. To solve this, JP-A-2003-334962 proposes an ink-jet recording apparatus that removes bubbles and thicker ink remaining in nozzles by suction (hereinafter, referred to as “suction recovery”) by covering a discharge surface of a head with a dedicated cap and by forming a negative pressure inside the cap.
The dedicated cap includes an adhesion member to which ink and the like adhere. Thicker ink and the like sucked from the nozzles and discharged inside the dedicated cap adhere to the adhesion member. Herein, when the ink-jet recording apparatus capable of suction recovery does not perform suction recovery (e.g., during printing and during power-off), the dedicated cap is open. Therefore, the thicker ink adhering to the adhesion member inside the dedicated cap is dried, and may cause clogging of the adhesion member. This may reduce ink-adhesion capacity of the dedicated cap, and may reduce suction force of the nozzles.
This problem may occur not only in the dedicated cap for suction recovery but also in, for example, caps used for so-called flushing during which a predetermined amount of ink is discharged from all the nozzles such that thicker ink and the like are removed. That is, this problem may occur in caps used for discharging ink from nozzles separately from printing (hereinafter, referred to as “preliminary discharge”). Moreover, this problem may occur not only in ink-jet recording apparatuses but also in fluid ejecting apparatuses that eject fluid (including liquid, liquid bodies in which particles of functional materials are dispersed, and solids such as fine particles capable of being ejected as fluid) other than ink.